JP4330838B2 - Shared storage computer system - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a storage management system having a plurality of computers and a plurality of storages, each of which is connected to a wide area network (WAN) and a local network (LAN).
[0002]
[Prior art]
With the recent spread of network services, the amount of data to be managed is increasing. In addition, the importance of each service is increasing, and the reliability and availability of each service are required to be improved.
As respective solutions, techniques such as a common storage management method using a storage area network (SAN) and having the advantage of centrally managing data and clustering by a plurality of computers are applied.
However, with the increase in common storage to be managed and the number of service execution computers, management complexity increases due to the management of configuration information between each service execution computer and the increase in settings in each computer. The problem is the occurrence of troubles due to incorrect definitions. In particular, it is not easy to maintain consistency between the test environment and the service execution operation environment. Problems such as data and definitions when switching from the test environment to the operation environment, or problems that occur due to inconsistencies in the environment, and service execution from the test. There are problems such as service stoppage and performance degradation when switching to.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As described above, with conventional systems, it is difficult to pursue a definition between systems because it is difficult to pursue troubles and test systems by stopping the computer that is executing the service online. There is.
In particular, when the storage is shared among a plurality of computers, there is a problem that it is difficult to achieve data consistency of the storage.
[0004]
The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a shared storage computer system that can easily test a system and update storage data without degrading service.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
A storage shared computer system according to the present invention is a system in which a plurality of computers that share storage connected to a wide area network execute each service.
A control / test computer connected to a local network different from the wide area network, and a switch controlled by the control / test computer between a plurality of computers executing storage and services;
When testing a specific storage, the control / test computer copies the contents of the specific storage to an unused storage and tests it, and when this test is completed, identifies the computer that is executing services on the wide area network. Control switching with storage,
When the service execution computer detects that the specific storage used by the monitoring mechanism has been switched to the storage after copying, the service execution computer disables the caching mechanism. I did it.
[0006]
Still further, the computer executing the service and the control / test computer comprise boot firmware that installs an operating system (OS) from storage,
The OS installed in the predetermined memory by the boot firmware copies the unique data from the storage and executes the service or performs the test.
[0007]
Furthermore, when the computer executing the service detects that the specific storage, which is the storage used by the monitoring mechanism, has been switched to the storage after the copy, it starts the startup firmware and the storage after the switch The OS was reinstalled in the example memory and restarted.
[0008]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiment 1 FIG.
A storage sharing system will be described in which a system test is performed separately from service execution and confirmed, and service execution is immediately started based on the confirmation data.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system configuration in the present embodiment.
In FIG. 1, service execution computers 0101A to 0101N are computers connected to a wide area network (WAN) 0102 and providing services on the WAN. The control / test computers 0103A to 0103N are connected to a local network (LAN) 0104, and are computers that perform data maintenance and testing. The storages 0105A to 0105N are storage devices for storing data, and are connected to the computers 0101A to 0101N by the WAN side switch 0106 to form a storage area network (WAN side SAN) 0108, and control / test computers 0103A to 0103N And a LAN side switch 0107 to form a storage area network (LAN side SAN) 0109.
The switches 0106 and 0107 are connected to the LAN 0104 and can be controlled by the control / test computers 0103A to 0103N.
[0009]
The operation of the file system 0201 on each of the service execution computers 0101A to 0101N will be described with reference to FIG.
In FIG. 2, service execution computers 0101A to 0101N, LAN 0104, storage 0105A to 0105N, and WAN side switch 0106 have the same configuration as in FIG. The file system 0201 manages data referred to by each service on each computer. A disk cache mechanism 0202 in the file system is for speeding up data access, and temporarily stores data on the storage. The disk monitoring mechanism 0203 in the file system is for monitoring the switching of the disk on the SAN. When the switching of the disk on the SAN is detected, the disk cache mechanism 0202 indicates that the data on the cache is invalid. Notice.
[0010]
An operation example in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
In FIG. 3, service execution computers 0101A to 0101N are the same as those in FIG. The computer 0103M is one of the control / test computers 0103A to 0103N, and performs copying, updating, and testing of information. The storage 0105K is referred to by the current service, and the storage 0105L is for storing updated data, and is a currently unused disk.
In FIG. 3A, the service execution computers 0101A to 0101N provide a service with reference to the storage 0105K. When testing a certain system, first, as shown in FIG. 3B, the control / test computer 0103M copies the data in the storage 0105K to the storage 0105L that is currently unused. In this way, in FIG. 3C, the control / test computer 0103M controls the LAN side switch 0107, switches the ports of the storage 0105K and the storage 0105L, and updates and tests the data.
When this test is completed, in FIG. 3D, the test computer 0103M controls the WAN side switch 0106 to switch the ports of the storage 0105K and the storage 0105L. Each of the WAN side service execution computers 0101A to 0101N uses the disk monitoring mechanism 0203 to detect that the storage has been switched, and invalidates the disk cache mechanism 0202. That is, thereafter, data is read from the switched storage 0105L, and based on this, the services on the computers 0101A to 0101N can continue to provide services by referring to the data by the file system 0201. It is.
[0011]
With the above configuration, it is possible to provide services continuously, and switching between the operating environment and test environment is only a switch, so troubles that occur due to inconsistencies in the environment and services in the operating environment It is possible to suppress stoppages and performance degradation.
In addition, here, the WAN side switch 0106 and the LAN side switch 0107 are configured one by one, but they may be configured to be redundant in order to further increase availability.
[0012]
Embodiment 2. FIG.
A configuration in which a computer that executes a service is installed from a storage including an OS will be described.
In this case, the test computer has the same configuration and performs various evaluations and confirmations in the same environment as the service execution.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a system configuration in the present embodiment.
In FIG. 4, service execution computers 0101A to 0101N, WAN0102, storage 0105A to 0105N, and WAN side switch 0106 have the same configuration and functions as in FIG.
The boot firmware 0401 is initially executed when the computer is booted, and includes a boot device port number 0402, a unique data port number 0403, and an operating system loader (OS loader) 0404. When the computer is activated, the OS loader 0404 refers to the boot device port number 0402, loads the OS 0406 from the storage on the SAN to the memory 0405, and transfers the execution to the OS. The OS 0406 refers to the unique data port number 0403, copies the unique data from the storage on the SAN to the local storage 0407, and performs normal startup processing.
[0013]
An operation example in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
In FIG. 5, service execution computers 0101A to 0101N, control / test computers 0103A to 0103N, and storages 0105A to 0105N have the same configuration and functions as in FIG.
In FIG. 5A, each of the WAN side service execution computers 0101A to 0101N uses an OS on the storage 0105A on the SAN, and each unique data operates using the storages 0105B to 0105N on the SAN. .
In order to test a certain system, the LAN side switch 0107 is switched in FIG. 5B, and the control / test computer 0103A refers to the OS of the storage 0105A ′ and refers to the unique data of the storage 0105B ′. Then, install the OS and set computer-specific data.
As shown in FIG. 5 (c), the LAN side switch 0107 is switched, and the control / test computer 0103B refers to the OS of the storage 0105A ′, refers to the unique data of the storage 0105C ′, and stores the computer-specific data. Set. After setting the required number of devices, perform an operation test on the LAN side.
When the test is completed, in FIG. 5 (d), the Ru switched WAN side switch 0106. When the service execution computer 0101A is turned on, the OS of the switched storage 0105A ′ is referred to and the unique data of the storage 0105B ′ is referred to.
Similarly, the service execution computer 0101B refers to the OS of the storage 0105A ′ and refers to the unique data of the storage 0105C ′. In this way, the WAN side service execution computers 0101A to 0101N are sequentially restarted when the power is turned on.
[0014]
With the configuration described above, even when installing an OS, applying a patch, or correcting specific data, the switch between the operating environment and the test environment is only a switch, so troubles caused by inconsistencies in the environment , Service degradation and performance degradation in the operating environment can be suppressed.
[0015]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, the present invention includes a computer that executes a service and a switch that is controlled by a control / test computer between the storages, and the service execution computer switches the specific storage used by the monitoring mechanism to the storage after copying. Since the cache mechanism is invalidated when it is detected, there is an effect that it is possible to obtain a storage sharing system that can prevent the service from being stopped and can maintain data consistency.
[0016]
Furthermore, since the boot firmware is provided and the OS and the specific data by the OS are installed from the storage, it is possible to prevent the service from being deteriorated for the service application including the OS and to ensure data consistency. The storage sharing system can be obtained.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a shared storage computer system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the relationship between the internal configuration of a computer and storage access in the first embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the system in the first embodiment;
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship between the internal configuration of a computer and storage access in Embodiment 2 of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the system in the second embodiment;
[Explanation of symbols]
0101A, 0101B, 0101N Service execution computer, 0102 WAN, 0103A, 0103B, 0103N Control / test computer, 0104 LAN, 0105A, 0105B, 0105C, 0105C ', 0105K, 0105L, 0105N Storage, 0106 WAN side switch, 0107 LAN side switch , 0201 file system, 0202 disk cache mechanism, 0203 disk monitoring mechanism, 0401 startup firmware, 0405 memory, 0404 OS loader, 0406 operating system (OS).

Claims (3)

In a shared storage computer system that includes a plurality of service execution computers and each service execution computer executes each service,
A control / test computer that updates the data used for the service ;
A storage for storing data used for the service used by the plurality of service execution computers for reference and shared with the control / test computer;
A first switch provided between the plurality of service execution computers and the storage;
A second switch provided between the control / test computer and the storage;
When testing the data used for the service of the specific storage, the control / test computer copies the data used for the service of the specific storage to an unused storage and passes the copy via the second switch. A storage shared computer characterized by updating and testing data used for a subsequent storage service and controlling the first switch to connect the service execution computer to the copied storage after the test is completed. system. The service execution computer includes a disk monitoring mechanism that monitors storage switching by the first switch, and a cache mechanism that temporarily stores data used for the service in the storage,
The cache mechanism invalidates temporarily stored data used for the service when the disk monitoring mechanism detects that the specific storage is switched to the copied storage. 1. The shared storage computer system according to 1. The service execution computer stores boot firmware that installs an operating system (OS) as data from the storage when the power is turned on.
The storage stores the OS, the control / test computer updates and tests the OS in the specific storage after the copy, and the service execution computer performs the test by the control / test computer after the copy by the boot firmware 2. The shared storage computer system according to claim 1, wherein an OS stored in the specific storage is installed.

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